Point Broadband, a high-speed internet service provider based in West Point, Georgia, said it has received an investment from private equity firm GTCR to help accelerate its expansion plans. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Point Broadband was founded in 2017 and offers fiber-to-the-premises broadband service to residential and business customers in several markets east of the Mississippi River. The company said it is actively expanding its footprint via FTTP builds in near adjacent markets,  and that the investment from GTCR will help accelerate plans to expand its network into underserved communities. 

"GTCR's strategic investment will help accelerate the deployment of our fiber-based broadband solutions to a range of markets, including small town USA and rural America," Point Broadband co-founder and CEO Todd Holt said in a press release. "GTCR shares our core values of customer service and community engagement and has a proven track record of deploying capital to build state-of-the-art broadband networks. We are excited to welcome GTCR to the Point Broadband family as we enter our next phase of growth."

Stifel served as lead financial advisor and Houlihan Lokey served as co-financial advisor to Point Broadband. Credit Suisse and Rothschild & Co. served as financial advisors and Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal advisor to GTCR.

"Point Broadband has a strong focus on best-in-class customer service supported by a localized presence in the communities they serve, and we believe Point is well-positioned to serve the growing demand for broadband services in markets across the nation," GTCR managing director Mark Anderson said in a press release. 

Altice USA said it’s on track to reach 1 million homes constructed with fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) technology by year-end 2018 as it moves ahead on design and construction work to “several hundred thousand homes” in parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

The update comes almost nine months after Altice USA announced it would skip DOCSIS 3.1 and instead focus on a FTTP upgrade that will reach the bulk of its footprint over the next five years. That initiative, called Generation Gigaspeed, aims to bring FTTP to its entire Optimum (former Cablevision Systems) footprint and to most of its Suddenlink footprint.

RELATED: Altice USA to Skip DOCSIS 3.1, Roll Out All-Fiber Network

“For us, it’s a real game-changer,” Dexter Goei, Altice USA’s chairman and CEO, said at the time, noting that the company will also apply the knowhow and the experience with FTTP in Europe to the new project and leverage the advancements made by Altice Labs, which is based in Portugal. He also said then that Altice USA is comfortable that it can complete the upgrade “without materially changing the capital outlay that we do today.”

RELATED: Altice USA in 'Unique Spot' for FTTP Upgrade 

Altice USA offered the update as Altice founder Patrick Drahi joined Goei at a fiber deployment site last Friday (August 11) on Long Island.

"We are incredibly pleased with the progress we are making on our fiber investment and look forward to lighting up this new, advanced network to enable innovative products and services to support our customers’ connectivity needs well into the future,” Goei said in a statement.

Following a deep analysis of its next-generation network options, MCTV has opted to go with an ambitious fiber-to-the-premises deployment that will result in a GPON network that will overlay its existing hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) plant.

The initiative, branded by MCTV as “Excellerate,” will initially focus on speedy broadband services and will essentially sidestep a move to DOCSIS 3.1, the new gigabit-class technology for HFC networks. Altice USA is plowing ahead with a similar strategy in its Optimum footprint (the systems acquired from Cablevision Systems) and the bulk of the systems it acquired from Suddenlink Communications.

RELATED: Altice USA to Skip DOCSIS 3.1, Roll Out All-Fiber Network

MCTV’s plan is to overlay its entire network with a GPON-based fiber-to-the-premises network over the next two to three years. The Massillon, Ohio-based operator, which serves more than 47,000 homes and businesses, announced Monday that its Excellerate-powered network is currently available to residential customers in “select areas” in Stark and Wayne counties in the northeastern part of the state. MCTV said it will notify customers when the new offering is available in their neighborhoods.

MCTV presented its plans earlier today at a conference featuring MCTV president Robert Gessner; Jonathan McGee, president of the Ohio Cable Telecommunication Association; Matt Polka, president and CEO of the American Cable Association (ACA); and U.S. Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-OH).

MCTV estimates that the Excellerate project encompasses a $20 million investment that will factor in 1,400 miles of fiber, 79,920 miles of “glass,” 220,000 hours of manpower, 120,000 splices, 14,000 drop enclosures, and 14 communities.

“The crux of this is to build our next-generation network,” Gessner said.  

“Our plan is over next couple of years to overlay the entire system with PON…We’re betting on the ten-year plan rather than the three-to-five plan,” he added, noting that MCTV isn’t yet faced with a “pressing need” for the new PON overlay.

Though many cable operators, including Comcast, WideOpenWest, RCN and Mediacom Communications, are betting heavily on DOCSIS 3.1, MCTV’s analysis, Gessner said, showed that moving to FTTP made the most sense for the operator.

RELATED: Mediacom Launches 1-Gig Across Iowa Footprint

Gessner said MCTV, which has already been deploying a GPON FTTP in select rural greenfield scenarios, has some fairly large nodes on its HFC network, including some portions that had four to five amplifiers running between the last fiber-fed node and customer homes.

“To do DOCSIS 3.1 well, we’re going to have to run a lot of fiber,” Gessner explained. “It just seemed like that was the better option for us, given our situation.”

MCTV found that it would be no more expensive, or maybe just a little more expensive, to go with GPON and FTTP than it was to get to a node-plus-one HFC architecture.

Update: In an email, Gessner noted that the $20 million investment is the estimated cost to complete the network, including elements such as fiber construction, cabinets, splice enclosures and splicing, and does not include the cost of fiber drops and the customer premises equipment.  

Regarding which parts of the footprint are being targeted first, he added that the plan is to reach a variety of areas, including rural greenfields, suburban brownfields, city centers and overbuild scenarios. MCTV is also selecting areas based on how quickly the operator can design the area and where it wants to eliminate the bandwidth load on the HFC plant.

MCTV also has lots of fiber expertise to draw from.

In addition to its recent PON-based activity, MCTV has also been running some FTTP networks in some rural areas using RF-over-Glass an SCTE-standardized technology and platform that allows MSOs to run fiber to the premises while retaining it backoffice systems and use of DOCSIS modems for high-speed data and legacy set-top boxes for video.

“Internally, our staff is very familiar and comfortable with the idea of running and deploying fiber drops all the way to the home,” Kelly Rehm, the company’s tech ops manager, said, noting that MCTV has been actively cross-training its workforce to handle FTTP deployments.

MCTV, which is working with Adtran on the Excellerate initiative, also reasons that it will be able to keep many costs in check because it will keep the bulk of that work in-house, requiring only a small portion of the network construction to outside contractors.

Gessner said MCTV also has the benefit of deploying the new FTTP network at its own pace, as the company has already converted many employees over to handle elements such as mapping, splicing, construction and field engineering.

"It's really gratifying to see everyone accept the inventible change that is coming and to adopt new roles at the company,”  he said. “I’m really proud of our folks for putting their shoulder to the wheel and really accepting this huge project." 

And using an overlay network will also ensure that MCTV will be able to transition customers to the PON-based offering without disrupting service. “It’s an attractive reason for building a network like this,” Rehm said.

Additionally, in neighborhoods with heavy residential or business users, MSTV has the ability to transition them more rapidly to the PON network and relieve pressure on the legacy HFC plant, noted Nick Provost, MCTV’s outside plant manager.

Though MCTV’s FTTP network will be capable of delivering gigabit speeds, it will initially focus on a high-end offering that delivers symmetrical speeds of 100 Mbps while also matching its pricing for its DOCSIS-based high-speed internet services. Today, for example, MCTV sells a 100 Mbps down/5 Mbps up service for $89.95 per month when it’s purchased as a stand-alone.

MCTV will continue to deliver QAM-based video services on its HFC legacy network, even as it starts to consider a migration to IPTV much further down the road.  

“At this point, we are proceeding along a path that says the [HFC] system is working great for delivering television, so let’s keeping using it,” Gessner said.

For its limited FTTP deployments in greenfield scenarios, MCTV has been using an IPTV platform.

Sonic is expanding the reach of its FTTP network in the tech-savvy city of San Francisco and broadening its offer of an uncapped 1 Gbps broadband/phone bundle that is priced at $40 for the first 12 months.

Under the expansion, Sonic’s bundle, which rises to $50 after the first year, is being is launching in the southern portion of The Mission District, and reach into Noe Valley, The Castro, Dolores Heights, Glen Park and Potrero Hill and Sunnyside in the coming months. That will expand on earlier launches in region’s Sunset District, Richmond District and Parkside.

The expansion marks the second phase of Sonic’s project in San Francisco, company CEO Dane Jasper said, noting that the company focused on areas where it has seen the most interest for the FTTP-fueled offering.

RELATED: Sonic.net Preps $40 1-Gig/Voice Bundle

“It’s a pretty aggressive and exciting product,” he said.

Sonic isn’t disclosing sub numbers or penetration rates for San Francisco, but Jasper said “demand is strong” there. Overall, the company has seen 25% growth overall (and has seen its base of installers grow by more than 300% over the past year), driven primarily by Sonic’s fiber product.

RELATED: Sonic.net CEO: Tiered Pricing 'Doesn't Make Sense'

Sonic will start to activate service in parts of the new build-out phase this week. Customers can also pre-order service in areas where construction isn’t complete. Jasper expects to complete the next phase of the build-out, which uses GPON technology, by March 2018.

“It’s a rolling deployment,” he said, holding that San Francisco has long been one of the nation’s “poorly connected large cities” amid deployment challenges and incumbent MSOs that don’t feel enough competitive pressure.

For its part, Comcast does offer its relatively pricey 2 Gbps “Gigabit Pro” FTTP service on a targeted basis in the San Francisco market, but has not announced when it will offer 1 Gbps using DOCSIS 3.1 there.

On the regulatory side, Jasper disagrees with those that believe that the regulatory framework of the 1996 Telecom Act haven’t’ worked with respect to deployment, at least in Sonic’s case.

“Sonic  is the embodiment of the vision of the 1996 Act,” he said, noting that his company started as an ISP, became a CLEC and deployed into central offices, and is now building its own outside plant.

“That investment ladder, that movement up the food chain, from resale to inside plant facilities to outside plant facilities, is exactly the kind of innovation and deployment that, in my opinion, the 1996 Act enabled,” Jasper said, noting that the example runs counter to comments related to the current Open Internet proceeding.

RELATED: FCC's Pai Launches Effort to Repeal Title II

“As we accumulate enough customers in an area, like the Mission District in San Francisco, we overbuild with fiber,” he said.

Sonic is also considering this in other cities in California, though it’s not announcing where it intends to build next.

“This is not one and done,” Jasper said of the San Francisco buildout expansion. “This is an ongoing process.”

Though 1-Gig represents the speed bar for an increasing number of ISPs, Verizon's next step up the broadband speed ladder will be 750 Mbps as the telco introduces a new symmetrical tier, called Fios Instant Internet, to about 7 million homes and businesses starting Saturday (Jan. 14).

Verizon Fios, which has been offering a high-end offering that tops out at 500 Mbps up and down, said it will initially debut the new 750-meg tier in New York City/Northern New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Richmond, with more markets to follow later in the year. Fios Instant Internet will be launched in Boston and Norfolk later in Q1, the telco said.

RELATED: Verizon Boots Up Fios Service in Boston

Per the announcement, Verizon will sell the new tier for $149.99 a month as a standalone, and $169.99 a month as part of a triple-play bundle with TV and home phone service. Notably, the standalone pricing undercuts Verizon’s current pricing on a 300 Mbps service ($170) and the telco’s 500-Meg offering (about $270), Ars Technica notes, though Verizon told the publication that it plans to adjust pricing on those tiers.

Verizon has so far avoided taking the plunge on a 1-Gig service that pairs up with the kind of speeds being advertised by providers such as Google Fiber, or from cable competitors, such as Comcast and RCN, that have begun to roll out DOCSIS 3.1-based services that deliver burst up to 1-Gig in the downstream direction (a “Full Duplex” extension of D3.1 that's in the works is targeting symmetrical multi-gig speeds). Altice USA, which tangles with Fios in the former Cablevision Systems markets, recently launched a 300 Mbps DOCSIS-based tier in its Optimum footprint, and is pushing ahead with an ambitious FTTP upgrade plan.

RELATED: Comcast Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Expansion, Launches 1-Gig in Detroit

A Verizon spokesperson noted that the new 750-meg Fios Instant Internet service “frequently performs well into the 900 Mbps range.”

Verizon has not announced when it might deploy a 1-Gig service for Fios, but the company is certainly thinking about a faster future for its fiber networks. On Wednesday, the company announced a successful interop lab trial for NG-PON2, an emerging FTTP technology that supports multi-gigabit speeds.

RELATED: Verizon Touts Progress on Next-Gen FTTP

“No Internet service provider has come close to offering upload and download speeds like these at such a massive scale as Fios Instant Internet," Ken Dixon, president of Verizon's consumer landline business, said in a statement. "Ever since we decided to build the nation's largest 100 percent fiber-to-the-home network 14 years ago, we've been saying that it is a future-proof technology. The future is now here with Fios Instant Internet."

Altice USA is placing a bet on fiber that’s so large that it will become grossly inaccurate to refer to the company as a “cable” provider in the years to come.

Altice USA, the service provider comprised of Altice N.V.’s acquisitions of Cablevision Systems and Suddenlink Communications, has embarked on an ambitious investment initiative that will skip DOCSIS 3.1 and instead focus on a fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) upgrade that will encompass the bulk of its footprint over the next five years.

RELATED: As Altice Closes on Cablevision, Goei Says Company Will Take Its Time

The five-year deployment schedule, referred to by Altice USA as “Generation Gigaspeed,” is slated to start in 2017 and bring FTTP to its entire Optimum (former Cablevision) footprint and to most of its Suddenlink footprint. The company plans to announce its initial rollout markets in the coming months.

It’s a big and bold move, as the combined footprint of Optimum and Suddenlink pass about 8.3 million fiber/cable homes. Altice USA’s plan also bucks the industry trend.

Though some U.S. cable operators are deploying FTTP in greenfields and in a relatively targeted fashion, few are looking to pivot away from hybrid fiber/coax (HFC) completely and go with an all-fiber upgrade, at least at the scale and scope that Altice USA is proposing.

Because across-the-board FTTP upgrades are generally considered by the vast majority of MSOs as too expensive to deploy for the payback given, most cable operators are instead looking to drive toward gigabit-class speeds on their widely deployed HFC networks through a more iterative process – by splitting nodes, deploying fiber closer (but not all the way) to the home, and rolling out DOCSIS 3.1, a CableLabs-specified platform that delivers multi-gigabit capabilities to HFC. Last August, Liberty Global CEO Mike Fries estimated that the MSO would be able to deploy DOCSIS 3.1 and deliver 1-gig speeds for about €20 (US $21.23) per home, a cost that excludes the consumer premises equipment/modem.

RELATED: Comcast Sets DOCSIS 3.1 Expansion, Launches 1-Gig in Detroit

Citing the FTTP playbook Altice N.V. is already using in France (22 million fiber  homes by the end of 2022) and Portugal (5.3 million fiber homes passed by the end of 2020) and its access to “proprietary” technologies developed by Altice Labs, the company’s U.S. division is confident that its FTTP rollout plan is sound from a technology and economic perspective.

Going with a DOCSIS 3.1 game plan “felt to us as one step forward but not a step forward enough relative to what we see as the future of continued connectivity and higher bandwidth usage,” Dexter Goei, Altice USA’s chairman and CEO, said in an interview, noting that the operator has reached an “inflection point” as it sees a disproportionate number of gross broadband subscriber additions taking higher and higher Internet speed tiers.  

“We’re big believers in this trend continuing, and we really are moving toward a 10-gig world,” Goei said. “And to sit around and do this in multiple steps doesn’t make any sense [so we decided] to skip over DOCSIS 3.1 and get straight to the point.”

The Economic Angle

Altice USA did not outline the specific economics that will underpin Generation Gigaspeed, but Goei said the company is comfortable that it can execute on it effectively from both a labor and equipment standpoint “without materially changing the capital outlay that we do today.”

“For us, it’s a real game-changer,” Goei said, noting that Altice USA will also apply the knowhow and the experience with FTTP in Europe to the new project and leverage the advancements made by Altice Labs, which is based in Portugal.

RELATED: Altice Group Launches R&D Lab in Portugal

Altice, Goei added, has also been able to implement price points with equipment suppliers that generate material capital budget savings, and has also been able to generate savings by dropping projects that the company didn’t find useful for its Suddenlink and Optimum properties.

RELATED: Altice Halts Freewheel Sales

"All of that money is getting plowed back into this fiber project,”  Goei said. “We think we're being very efficient about using our savings and redeploying it into foolproofing our network for the long term.”

He said Altice USA’s plan rides on some critical economic tailwinds because it will be extending its HFC network, which already has fiber built to the node, rather than having to build an end-to-end network such as Verizon did with FiOS and Google Fiber has been struggling to pull off.

RELATED: Google Fiber Pauses Expansion Plans, Laying Off Some Staff

Update: Jeff Heynen, analyst with SNL Kagan, weighed in on Altice's plan on Twitter Wednesday, noting that the operator will benefit from the concentrated nature of the Optimum footprint, while also believing that other MSOs might follow suit: 

Altice won't be the only one. Easier to do FTTP in Cablevision footprint. https://t.co/hp8jEDigiI

— Jeff Heynen (@jeffheynen) November 30, 2016

Goei, who believes Altice USA’s preponderance of aerial plant will also help with the speed and cost of deploying FTTP, also expressed confidence that the newly proposed all-glass architecture will provide an economic boost in other ways, hopeful that the resulting network will require less maintenance and truck rolls and deliver services that improve customer satisfaction.

One major challenge Altice USA will seemingly face is how to deploy its FTTP network without causing service disruptions. “We’re very focused on making sure that the client transition is seamless,” Goei said.

Ahead of its coming FTTP upgrade, Altice has been leaning on DOCSIS-based technologies to deliver faster speeds on HFC. Suddenlink’s legacy, 1-Gig focused Project Gigaspeed rollout has reached nearly half of Suddenlink’s service area. More recently, Altice USA launched a 300 Mbps residential broadband service in its Optimum new York metro area footprint, where the MSO tangles with Verizon FiOS.

RELATED: Suddenlink Expands 1-Gig Reach

Altice USA Eyes ‘Full-IP’ Video Future

The FTTP rollout might also have an impact on Altice USA’s video service. RF-over-Glass (RFoG), now an SCTE standard, enables MSOs to deliver legacy QAM-based video services over FTTP networks, but it’s not clear if Altice intends to use it.

RELATED: Arris Touts Progress On DOCSIS 3.1, RFoG

Goei wouldn’t outline Altice USA’s video service roadmap, but allowed that the operator will likely move to a hybrid approach. “Fundamentally the idea is to go full-IP,” he said.

In France, Altice has already introduced a next-gen set-top/gateway initially targeted for FTTP networks that supports 4K, bakes in eight tuners and is outfitted with a new UI, a 500 GB hard drive and integrated NFC, Bluetooth and 802.11ac WiFi,  but has not announced if it would extend that part of its video game plan to the U.S.

It’s also unknown if Altice’s reported investment in Layer3 TV, the Denver-based next-gen cable operator that runs video on IP, will factor into the MSO’s future video plans.

RELATED: Layer3 TV: A Different Kind of Animal

CenturyLink and Lumiere Fiber are partnering to bring 1-Gig services to Sterling Ranch, a master-planned community in Colorado being built in the northwest Douglas County area.

CenturyLink, which competes in the market with Comcast, has signed on as the exclusive broadband provider for Sterling Ranch, a 3,400-acre community that will be built out over about 20 years with an estimated 12,000 residenances. CenturyLink said it marks the first time it will bring gigabit service to an entire community in Colorado.

Sterling Ranch is a 3,400-acre, master-planned community that will continue to be built out over approximately 20 years with an estimated 12,000 residences. 

The 1-Gig offering will be offered at a “special rate” of $85 per month, include a wireless access point, with the option to get CenturyLink’s IP-based Prism TV service.

The partnership was announced Monday at a recently opened CenturyLink Solutions Store in Denver. Colorado Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel and State Representative Kim Ransom joined CenturyLink and Sterling Ranch execs for the announcement. 

Verizon’s fiber-based Fios platform will finally extend into Boston following a commitment by the telco to invest more than $300 million over the next six years.

Verizon, which tangles with Comcast and RCN in Boston, said construction of the FTTP network will be completed on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis, starting this year in Dorchester, West Roxbury and the Dudley Square neighborhood of Roxbury, and follow with Hyde Park, Mattapan, and other areas of Roxbury and Jamaica Plain.

Verizon said Boston has also “agreed to provide an expedited permitting process to encourage this build.”

Sharing some similarities with Google Fiber’s “rally” process and use of “Fiberhoods,” , Verizon and Boston are also asking consumers to “vote” in order to bump them up higher on the priority list as the Fios expands across the city. Under that plan, Boston has been divided into four groups (A,B,C, and D), with each group divided into “Fiber Zones.”

Notably, the site dedicated to that process notes that there must be a “minimum level of interest in order to bring Fios” to specific Fiber Zones. Groups A and B will be targeted during the first couple years of the build, followed by C and D. Voting for Group A continues through July 3, 2016, while voting on Group B is set to close on September 4, 2016. 

In an FAQ about the fiber project, Verizon said it expects to start building the network in Boston this summer, and launch services in select areas by "early 2017." 

"We estimate the build throughout the city will take 5-6 years, as we complete one area and expand to others. This is a big project, but Fiber Zones allow for more rapid deployment," the telco said. 

In addition to Fios residential services and “advanced business services,” Verizon said it has also committed to improving its 4G LTE network and a pledge to “usher in 5G.”

To assist on the mobile side, Boston will also take friction out of Verizon’s ability to attach wireless equipment to city street lights and utility poles.

The city also announced, as a next step, that it will begin the cable television licensing process that will help Verizon to launch Fios TV service in Boston.

Verizon and Boston will also work together on a way to bring new tech and services to low-income residents, kicked off by a $100,000 “Digital Equity” contribution to Boston that will be used for a new mobile hotspot lending program at the Boston Public Library. Also factored in is a “Smart Cities” trial focused on addressing traffic safety and congestion along the Massachusetts Avenue Vision Zero Priority Corridor. 

“Boston is moving faster than our current infrastructure can support, and a modern fiber-optic communications platform will make us a next-level city,” Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh said in a statement. “Additionally, it is a priority to ensure that every resident has expanded access to broadband and increasing competition is critical to reaching that goal. I thank Verizon for their investment in Boston and for partnering with the city to provide the foundation for future technology growth.”

“This transformation isn’t just about advanced new fiber-optic technology – it’s about the innovative services this platform will allow people to create and use, today and in the future,” added Verizon Wireline Network president Bob Mudge. “We are delivering the promise of the digital world to families, schools and medical facilities, businesses and entrepreneurs, while strengthening our neighborhoods and communities. We are a proud partner in building toward a brighter, shared future.”

Google Fiber has quietly dropped a “Basic” Internet service in its first markets – Kansas City, Mo., and Kansas City, Kan. – that delivered 5 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up to customers who agreed to pay a “construction” fee up front, but is pushing ahead with plans to offer free gigabit service to public housing connected to its network. 

In Kansas City, Google Fiber still offers its 1-Gig standalone broadband service for $70 per month as well as a 1-Gig/TV combo starting at $130 per month (it’s currently waiving a $100 installation fee to customers who commit for a year), and now complements those with a “Fiber 100” offering that delivers symmetrical speeds of up 100 Mbps for $50 per month, via its same fiber-to-the-premises platform. All of Google Fiber’s broadband service plans remain cap-free. Although Google Fiber is dropping the free option for new customers in Kansas City, existing customers on that plan will reportedly be able to keep it. 

Google Fiber reasons that the Basic product has been criticized for not meeting the needs of consumers it was meant for, and that a new product that delivers free gigabit broadband service to all public housing properties that are connected to it network is a better approach to reach people who aren’t online today. That free option for qualified properties, Google Fiber confirmed, will be starting in Kansas City on May 19. Google Fiber announced that initiative in February, noting then that it was moving ahead to connect up to nine properties that serve more than 1,300 families in the area via the program.

Additionally, Google Fiber said it also believes that the launch of the new Fiber 100 service will provide a less expensive option for customers who may not be quite ready for 1-Gig.

In the meantime, Google Fiber is still promoting the free Basic service in markets such as Austin, Texas; and Provo, Utah.  However, Basic is also not among the options in Atlanta, where Google Fiber is building its network,  but, early on, is using existing fiber infrastructure to reach select apartment buildings in the city.

Google Fiber, which recently introduced a landline phone service, has also committed to deploy in Salt Lake City; San Antonio; Nashville, Tenn.; and Charlotte and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. It’s considering expansions in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; Los Angeles, San Jose, Irvine and San Diego, Calif.; Phoenix; Oklahoma City; Louisville, Ky.; and Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.

Verizon said it has successfully tested NG-PON2 FTTP technology that, it claims, could “easily provide” symmetrical speeds of 10 Gbps to business and residential customers.

The telco, which is currently offering up to 500 Mbps up and down on its residential FiOS high-speed Internet platform, said the next-gen PON tech likewise will “open the door” to a blistering 80 Gbps.

Verizon said the trial conducted with a NG-PON2 equipment system from Cisco and PT Inovação at the telco’s central in Framingham, Mass., to a FiOS customer’s home three miles away, as well as to a nearby business location.

The trial used a new optical line terminal (OLT) installed at the central office that pumped out four wavelengths that was each capable of operating at 10 Gbps down by 2.5 Gbps up. Future versions will support symmetrical 10G per color, the company said.

Verizon noted that upgrades on the FTTP network will start when commercial equipment is available to support business offerings such as switched Ethernet services. The telco plans to issue a request for proposals later this year for the hardware and software needed for a new NG-PON2 platform.

While 10-Gig “would be most attractive for business customers,” Verizon said that picture will change for consumers amid the adoption of 4K video and the expected explosion of the so-called Internet of Things, which will generate demand for higher symmetrical speeds and lower latencies.

“The advantage of our FiOS network is that it can be upgraded easily by adding electronics onto the fiber network that is already in place,” Verizon VP of network technology Lee Hicks said, in a statement, “Deploying this exciting new technology sets a new standard for the broadband industry and further validates our strategic choice of fiber-to-the-premises.”

The field trial, the telco said, validated an important service reliability feature of NG-PON2 – it simulated a fault in the central office equipment, but the ONT restored its own 10G service “in seconds” by autonomously  tuning to another wavelength.

According to Hicks, NG-PON2 will have the system capacity to grow to 40 Gbps to 80 Gbps, by adding new colors of light onto the existing fiber. Each new color beefs up the capacity by up to 10 Gbps.

The new technology could raise the stakes in the broadband game. Thanks in part to pressure being applied by Google Fiber, the high-end benchmark for residential broadband is 1 Gbps.  Comcast, meanwhile, has begun to offer 2 Gbps residential service via its targeted, FTTP-based “Gigabit Pro” product.

DOCSIS 3.1, an emerging platform for HFC networks, is aiming for capacities of 10 Gbps down and at least 1  Gbps downstream. 

Comcast confirmed that Gigabit Pro, its new symmetrical 2 Gbps residential broadband service delivered via fiber-to-the-premises technology, will carry a promotional price of $159 per month in the early going, about half its general price of $299.95 per month.

A web site promoting the service went live Monday. According to the fine print, customers who are eligible (those within one-third of a mile of Comcast’s fiber network) must agree to a two-year term contract that is subject to early termination fees, as well as other fees, including $500 for a professional installation and $500 for service activation. “Installation may require 6 to 8 weeks or more to complete,” the site explains.

Updates:

-Gigabit Pro will not be subject to monthly usage consumption caps. Comcast is testing usage-based consumption policies in several markets for HFC-delivered high-speed Internet services. 

-Comcast confirmed a report that the promotional pricing for Gigabit Pro is presently limited to the MSO's Central Division markets, and that customers who take the promotional rate will be required to sign a three-year agreement. Comcast hasn't announced the duration of this promo. "We want to test it first and see what we learn from it," a spokesman said. 

In the early going, Comcast is offering Gigabit Pro as a stand-alone service, and is not offering it in conjunction with specific video and voice bundles.

According to the Gigabit Pro site, the new 2-Gig service is available in the following areas:

-Florida: Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Miami, and West Palm Beach.

-Georgia: Atlanta.

-Illinois: Chicago.

-Indiana: Anderson, Bloomington, Columbus, Elkhart, Fort Wayne, Gary, Hammond, Indianapolis, Kokomo, Lafayette,  and South Bend.

-Michigan: Detroit, Flint, Grand Rapids, Jackson, and Lansing.

-Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville.

-California: Chico, Fresno, Marysville/Yuba City, Merced, Modesto, Monterey, Sacramento, Salinas, San Francisco Bay Area, Santa Barbara County, Stockton and Visalia metro areas.

Comcast, which announced Gigabit Pro in April, plans to make the 2-Gig service available to 18 million customers by the end of 2015. Other markets identified for the service include Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon;  and Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.

Comcast has been using its business-focused Metro Ethernet platform to deliver a residential service called Extreme 505 (those customers will be moved to Gigabit Pro), but is expected to use a PON-based approach for Gigabit Pro in the months ahead.

Comcast is deploying Gigabit Pro on a demand-driven basis, only pulling fiber and installing the necessary home-side gear to customers who sign up for it. Comcast expects to offer gigabit speeds on a much broader basis on its broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1, a new CableLabs-specified platform that is targeting capacities up to 10 Gbps down and at least 1 Gbps in the upstream.

More detail about Comcast’s strategy around Gigabit Pro and cable’s targeted use of fiber-to-the-premises technologies will be featured in the July 20 issue of Multichannel News. 

Comcast has not announced pricing for its “Gigabit Pro” service, but the MSO continues to expand the number of markets that will gain access to it.

Comcast said the service, which will deliver symmetrical speeds of 2 Gbps over fiber to residential customers, will soon be available to about 650,000 homes in parts of Indiana (Indianapolis, Anderson, Bloomington, Fort Wayne, Columbus, Kokomo and Lafayette), and to roughly 1.5 million homes in several cities in Michigan, including Detroit, Grand Rapids, Flint, Jackson and Lansing.

Comcast has also announced it will offer Gigabit Pro in Atlanta; parts of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville; Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon; Chicago and northwest Indiana; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., and parts of California.

The MSO’s plan is to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million customers (homes that are within about one-third of its fiber network) by the end of 2015.

Pricing on the service is expected to emerge when Comcast begins to market Gigabit Pro sometime this month. A Web page promoting the service, originally spotted by DSL Reports, temporarily indicated that the service would start at $299 per month, but Comcast said pricing, including introductory and promotional rates for Gigabit Pro, were still being considered.

Comcast also plans to offer gigabit speeds via its its more broadly deployed HFC network using DOCSIS 3.1. 

If you’re a consumer in a Comcast market that’s been waiting for Gigabit Pro, the MSO’s new fiber-based 2-Gig service, you’ll have to wait a bit longer.

“We expect to start marketing Gigabit Pro this month,” a Comcast spokesman said via email. “The plan is to make it available in multiple markets simultaneously.”

While Comcast has been talking up summer launches of Gigabit Pro in several markets, the original plan in some of the first announced areas tagged for the coming 2-Gig service, notably in Atlanta and parts of Florida, anticipated that the service to become available to qualified homes by sometime in May. 

DSL Reports made mention of this today, reporting that a Comcast rep told a potential Gigabit Pro customer in Florida that the launch there has been “temporarily delayed.” DSL Reports also got hold of some marketing material Comcast has been sending out ahead of the launch in Atlanta that included this teaser page for the new service. 

In addition to Atlanta and part of Florida, including Miami and Jacksonville, Comcast has already announced that the following markets are also in line to get Gigabit Pro: Houston; Colorado (including metro Denver, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Colorado Springs); Utah; Washington State (including Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, and Everett); Oregon; Chicago and northwest Indiana; Minneapolis/St. Paul; Chattanooga and Knoxville, Tenn., and parts of California.

Comcast’s current plan is to make Gigabit Pro available to 18 million homes (those within about one-third of a mile of its fiber network) by the end of 2015.

How many of them will actually want or need a residential 2-gig service is up for debate. As for the want, that will be partly determined by how Comcast prices it. That hasn’t been formally announced, either, though a promotional Web site that appeared temporarily indicated that the service would start at $299 per month. Comcast said then that pricing, including introductory and promotional rates for Gigabit Pro, were still being considered. 

Troy Cable has tapped Adtran to power a fiber-to-the-premises network that will deliver symmetrical 1 Gbps broadband service to more than 40,000 homes in southeast Alabama.

The GPON-powered service will reach more than 20 communities, the operator said. 

When bundled with other services, Troy Cable is selling its symmetrical FTTP-based broadband tiers as follows:

-50 Mbps down/50 Mbps up: $52.95/month

-200/200: $65.95/month

-500/500: $99.99/month

-1 Gbps/1 Gbps: $199.99/month

Pricing on stand-alone FTTP service was not immediately available.

Update: Here is the stand-alone pricing: 

-50/50: $105.90/month

-200/200: $131.90/month

-500/500: $199.98/month

-1-Gig/1-Gig: $399.98/month

“Our customers expect the fastest internet connection possible for telecommuting, video streaming, gaming and more. Add to that the growing number of devices in each household, launching a Gigabit Internet Service offering was a logical next step. We have the fiber infrastructure in place and are delivering the fastest, most reliable Gigabit service available in Alabama,” said Jake Cowen, general manager of Troy Cable, in a statement

“As Troy Cable remains dedicated to enhancing the community’s broadband infrastructure, they’re changing the way customers look at cable companies,” said Mitch Fleming, regional vice president, sales, ADTRAN Carrier Networks Division. “Beyond offering standard cable services, Troy Cable is thinking long-term by offering its customers a complete portfolio of solutions,” added Mitch Fleming, regional VP of sales for Adran’s Carrier Networks Division. “They are taking broadband service offering to the next level, as well as finding a competitive differentiator in a demanding marketplace.”